From the month of January, it moves to March 21. Audiences will have to wait a little longer to see what David Benioff and D.B. do. Weiss, the creators of Game of Thrones, with another genre literary saga, The Three-Body Problem by Chinese writer Liu Cixin. And, between strikes by scriptwriters and actors, Netflix has altered its release schedule for the coming months, both due to delays and to manage the platforms' big bets among subscribers.
It cannot be said that it is an unexpected project. In August 2019, Benioff and Weiss signed for Netflix (it is estimated) for around $200 million, a decision that forced them to cut all ties with Disney, for whom they were developing a new Star Wars trilogy. It took them a year to announce their first project. In September 2020 they reported that they were adapting Cixin's science fiction trilogy.
The trilogy published between 2006 and 2010 focuses on Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist who grew up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when she lost her father to the Red Guards, and who has a mission: to find extraterrestrial life. But, when eight years after sending a message, she receives a response, it is not what she expected.
The message comes from a planet called Trisolaris, which revolves around three suns and is subject to an authoritarian regime. As the messenger tells him, the best thing he can do is desist from all communication with them: he fears that, if the transmissions reach the wrong hands, the regime will begin a totalitarian conquest of planet Earth. To adapt this text, from Chinese imagery and which symbolizes Western pressure on this planet called Trisolaris, they have Alexander Woo, the translator of the novels in the United States and who had co-created The terror: Infamy.
The Three Body Problem, on paper, is the ideal series for Netflix. Benioff and Weiss are known among the general public for adapting an ambitious literary universe to television, giving it the epic and moving through adult themes, so both the target and the dimensions of the production are known to them and are exactly what the audience expects. from them. But will they be able to repeat the play that turned out so well on HBO?
In The Three Body Problem, Benioff and Weiss repeat with Game of Thrones actors such as John Bradley, Liam Cunningham and Jonathan Pryce, in addition to Jess Hong, Jovan Adepo, Benedict Wong, Saamer Usmani and Rosalind Chao. As producers, they have Woo, Rian Johnson, Brad Pitt and Rosamund Pike among others. After a first trailer, they have now taken the opportunity to release a new promotional video for the series to whet your appetite.
The only downside, besides the pressure of finding the new Game of Thrones after the large check that they have not creatively amortized since 2019? That, before this adaptation arrived on Netflix, a series has already been produced from China that adapts Cixin's three novels in thirty chapters and with a technical bill that has nothing to envy of Hollywood. It can be viewed through Viki.
Will the inertia of the American version spoil it, considering that the public in March will only have the first part of the story? A good way to get rid of the monkey and finish the story will be to give the Chinese adaptation, already produced in its entirety, a chance.
